January 31, 2017

How safe is the cloud?. This is a great article from the Florida Bar about the use of the cloud for lawyers. It has recently been revised, and contains information about the risk-reward issues every lawyer should consider before putting sensitive information in the cloud. Most of us are comfortable using the cloud to store family photos, and personal documents and information. However, that, too, carries risk, and the best advice I have heard is never to put anything in the cloud you would be uncomfortable being seen publicly. Many lawyers, however, are using the cloud without incident, and it really depends on how risk tolerant you are. If a cloud company uses end to end encryption, and you are comfortable with their other security protocols, go for it. If not, think twice. Of course, the truth is that nothing is really 100% secure anymore, and, for most lawyers, Internet cloud security is better than the security in their offices. But, there is a difference between storing files and data at a discrete physical location, and putting it on a server to be stored God Know's Where. As with most risk, pick your poison. But, read this Florida Bar article first.

Google%u2019s AI can now lip read better than humans after watching thousands of hours of TV - The Verge. Using thousands of hours of TV to teach AI to lip read better than humans flies in the face of my mom's wisdom. Growing up with Howdy Doody, and Saturday morning cartoons, was my escape from being a kid. According to mom, watching so much TV would "make you stupid". Read a book she said. So, I read books, and, I must admit, they helped me in school and as I grew up. But, I was woefully ignorant about TV shows that I missed while reading books and doing homework every day after school, and I blame her for my adult addiction to binge watching TV series on the Internet. Right now, I am binge watching all the Perry Mason episodes I missed between 1959 and 1965. Oh, the wasted hours. So, my advice to AI engineers is to set their software to read some books. Lip reading isn't a skill that will create smarter computers. They will just go crazy thinking about all the stupid things humans are saying these days.

Google Introduces Android 7.1.2 Beta, Begins Rollout To Nexus And Pixel Devices Except Nexus 6P : TECH : Tech Times. One of the cool things about being on the leading edge of tech is that you get to try out new stuff first. Of course, there is risk involved; but, the rewards are often greater. While SWMBO is not adventurous enough to join the Google Android Beta program for her Pixel XL phone, I have it on my Nexus 6P. The new Nougat update to Android 7.1.2 won't be coming to the Beta 6P users right away; but, it will be here soon. For other reasons, I have switched to the Phab 2 Pro from Lenovo and Google for my daily phone; it is still running Marshmallow (Android 6.0.1), but it has Augmented Reality and a 6.4 inch screen. The 6P is perfect for photos and interviews, and as a backup. In fact, I bought the 6P AND the Phab 2 Pro together for the same price as I paid for SWMBO's Pixel XL. What's in your pocket?

January 30, 2017

Hopefully, by now, you have watched the short interview segments I have been posting, five of which were with the Exhibitors who have practice management software solutions. At the show, we were distributed a comparison sheet which does a side by side feature comparison, which should give you some good information when comparing the companies' offerings. Download Practice Management Comparison

Perhaps the best known, and largest, publisher of legal content, and provider of legal research and software, is Thomson-Reuters. In the words of the company: Law products and services that deliver the legal technology, content and expertise you need to find trusted answers. By providing content not available anywhere else, and having solutions for just about every legal need, the company has survived and thrived in a world of free research available on the Internet. Curated content by legal editors who know what they are doing makes the products appealing to many in the legal profession.

There are many credit card processors out there; but, only one that specializes in law firms and offices. Used by over 35,000 law firms across the country, LawPay also integrates with some of the case management systems, and can greatly simplify the acceptance of credit cards. You won't survive long without getting paid. LawPay makes it easier and faster.

Everything that matters to your practice.

Clio's motto and tag line highlights its claim to be a one stop shop for law office management. If you can think of a task that a lawyer must perform, or a feature that all law offices need, Clio claims to provide it with their software. It offers all you need to run a law practice from intake to invoice, with powerful features to manage cases, clients, documents, bills, appointments, time-tracking, reporting, and accounting.

Timeline: 50 Years of Hard Drives | PCWorld. Perhaps the one biggest thing driving computer technology over the last fifty years has been the increasing capacity of data storage devices. Computer data is the reason we can use them for so many modern tasks; and, the price performance ration has been astounding. The ten megabyte hard drive I purchased in the Eighties for my Toshiba portable computer (ten pounds of svelte computing power) cost almost a thousand dollars, and they were Eighties dollars. Today, I saw an ad at B&H photo for a 500 Gigabyte drive on sale for $39.95. I am not a math whiz; but, that means you would have to buy 50 thousand 10 meg drives to equal the forty dollar drive of today. Jeez.

January 29, 2017

Relive 1993 With Myst, Now Available on Android for $6.99 | Droid Life. In the early Nineties, my favorite computer pastime; even before surfing the "Web", was a computer puzzle game called "Myst". A haunting island, with great music, and tantalizing puzzles and rooms, I was hooked immediately. Now, it has been ported to Android, for $6.99, and I know what I will be doing tonight when we get home from Orlando. If you recognize this photo, you are really old, and you had a wasted youth. Enjoy.

Lawyer,Poet, author, educator. Practices real property, corporation, wills, trusts and estates law in Pinellas County, Florida. Writes the FutureLawyer column. Gives seminars on technology and the law. Author of "Life is Simple, Really", Poems about Life, Loving, Family and Fun.